Media Ideology Essay

1278 Words3 Pages

How mass media is using both Ideology and Popular Culture to develop societal expectations and social identities. This essay will look at how Ideology, Hegemony, and Popular Cultural Theory shape common values and expectations of society and media’s influence and compare and contrast differing approaches to understanding the relationship between media and society. The discussion will be contextualized through the use of gender roles and expectations, and how these theories develop and affect the female social identity. Ideology is a set of ideas held by an individual or group to shape their common values, beliefs and expectations of the world around them. Media uses ideology is develop an order in which the nature of the world can be developed. …show more content…

Popular cultural theory argues that ideology is insignificant in comparison to the audience reception and interpretation of media content. Fiske (1986) believes that to preserve the minorities and serve the wider interest of the peoples whose differences will be a source of possible social change we must take the ideologies and power of the dominant groups, use them for different social purposes, and strip them of their hegemonic powers. Thwaites, Davis & Mules (1994) debates how media text can create an argument about social identity. The example given poses the question “are you are good wife?” which in itself brings into question female gender roles both in the family and in society and suggests that the woman in not fulfilling the expectations established by the dominant ideology enforced. The authors argue that “ideology limits and contain its polysemic structure by using such stereotypes and myths such as good, obedient wives and patriarchal authority. The possibility of a positive understanding of woman’s social identity has to be read through a male-defined position.” (p.161) Thus, it is argued that the connection between polysemy and social and political freedom does not place the audience in an equivalent position of power to authorities and mass media institutions portray the

Show More
Related

  • Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan Douglas

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of women, it purposely sets out to redefine women and the qualities by which they should define themselves. The contradictory messages received by women leave women not only in a love/hate relationship with the media, but also in a love/hate relationship with themselves.

    Read More

  • Dreamworlds 3: The Role Of Women And The Media

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,

    Read More

  • Dyes And Dolls: Multicultural Barbie And The Deep Play Of Difference?

    1745 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the United States, women are universally experiencing misogyny and pressure to conform to the ideals of hegemonic femininity. This experience for women is in part due to the acceptance of controlling images such as stereotypical gender roles and sexual objectification in the media and other broadcasting outlets. On the opposite side, men are also experiencing the stress and pressure of conforming to the ideals of hegemonic masculinity. The media is thus creating a vicious cycle of rhetoric and images persuading men and women that they have to act, look, and live life a certain way. Within this vicious cycle, the commodification of difference is created to benefit mass media, marketing representatives, and the generally white, upper-class

    Read More

  • Mass Media Shaping American Values Essay

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    Traditional American values such as hard work, freedom, and team work, confidence and standing up for ones beliefs have been drastically shaped and changed by the mass media. The mass media is any type of media outlet and just listening to it and being exposed to it changes people attitudes and perspectives more then we realize. The traditional values that we have always clung to, as a nation may not be as intact as we would like to believe these days.

    Read More

  • Media Violence and the Captive Audience

    5192 Words  | 11 Pages

    The media, including television programming, cartoons, film, the news, as well as literature and magazines, is a very powerful and pervasive medium for expression. It can reach a large number of people and convey ideas, cultural norms, stereotypic roles, power relationships, ethics, and values. Through these messages, the mass media may have a strong influence on individual behavior, views, and values, as well as in shaping national character and culture. Although there is a great potential for the media to have a positive and affirming effect on the public and society at large, there may be important negative consequences when the messages conveyed are harmful, destructive, or violent.

    Read More

  • Comparing Liberalism And Conservatism

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    A political ideology is a coherent system of political ideas and beliefs that provide us with visions of what the good society should look like and a road map regarding how to bring it about.

    Read More

  • The Media And Gender Stereotypes In The Media

    2330 Words  | 5 Pages

    The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.

    Read More

  • Sexism and the Media

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today's world, what we see in the media dictates our world. Media, by definition, is a form of mass communication, such as television, newspapers, magazines and the internet. Since the beginning of this media phenomenon, men and women have been treated very differently, whether it be through advertisements or news stories. As women have gained more rights and social freedoms, the media has not changed their views on women. They are often viewed as objects, whether for a man's pleasure, or for as a group to sell only cleaning products to.The portrayal of women in the media has a highly negative impact on the easily shaped young women of today. Women of power are often criticized, others hypersexualized. The media also directs advertisements for household things at women.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Wolf Of Wall Street

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to a report by ZenithOptimedia, people spend more than an average of 490 minutes of their day consuming some form of media or text (Karaian). In a society that’s driven primarily by the media, we as consumers have been constantly exposed, yet desensitized, to the various perspectives and theoretical frameworks that media has historically illustrated and produced. The most common concepts that are explored involve ideas of race, heteronormativity, whiteness and white privilege, female objectification, class identity, and gender. Each perception is complex and is seen differently in media depending on who you are and the way that you see the world through the lenses created by your own beliefs and culture.

    Read More

  • Relationship Between Pop Culture And Popular Culture

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Popular culture is often dismissed as frivolous, unimportant or simply mindless entertainment, both by media critics and by academics. However, it is important to examine and think critically about popular culture and what it can tell us about the society that we live in. In the specific case of the relationship between gender and popular culture, popular culture is informed by the way gender is structured and the structure of gender is, in part, reinforced by popular culture.

    Read More

  • Structure and Agency

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2009)Media and Society: An introduction. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony. London: Oxford.

    Read More

  • Ideology Essay

    1516 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ideology is a set of beliefs or ideals that are followed by a group of people or an individual. These beliefs are then used as a format for political or economic systems. An example of one of these ideological systems is Republicanism, which is the belief that a

    Read More

  • Essay On Role Of Media In Politics

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    The current role of mass media in politics has definitely played a significant role in how view and react to certain events and issues of the nation. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are some of the ways information is passed onto many of the citizens. The World Wide Web is also an information superhighway, but not all of the sources on the Internet are credible. Therefore, I will only focus on the main three types of media: written, viewed, and audible, and how they affect whether or not democracy is being upheld in the land of the free. The media includes several different outlets through which people can receive information on politics, such as radio, television, advertising and mailings. When campaigning, politicians spend large quantities of money on media to reach voters, concentrating on voters who are undecided. Politicians may use television commercials, advertisements or mailings to point out potentially negative qualities in their opponents while extolling their own virtues. The media can also influence politics by deciding what news the public needs to hear. Often, there are more potential news stories available to the media than time or space to devote to them, so the media chooses the stories that are the most important and the most sensational for the public to hear. This choice can often be shaped,

    Read More

  • Media Literacy Essay

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    If one asked “What is media literacy?” a majority of people would be puzzled. Some would say that it is the ‘written’ part of media that is not usually seen or a written layout of how media should be produced. The bulk of people would say they have no idea what media literacy is. People in today’s society should be informed about media literacy. Society should be informed of what media literacy exactly is and how it applies to the field of communications.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Gender Inequality Essay

    1837 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mar, Tyler, Tyler Mar, and View profile. "Typed Into Our Heads: Gender Inequality In Media". Tylermar.blogspot.com. N. p., 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2016

    Read More

More about Media Ideology Essay

Open Document